Archive for the ‘Vista’ Category

Want to make sure your Windows 7 computer shuts down at the same time every day (or night) without having to go through the shutdown process manually? All you have to do is create a scheduled task. Here’s how:

Click the Start button and in the search box, type Scheduled tasks

Click the item when it appears in the search results list under “Control Panel.”

In the Task Scheduler console, in the Actions pane on the right, click “Create Basic Task …”.

In the Wizard page that opens, give the task a name such as “Shutdown” and write a description (if you want) such as “Shuts down the computer at 1:00 a.m. every day.”

Click Next.

On the Task Trigger page, select “Daily” and click Next.

On the Start Date and Time page, fill in the date and time you want to begin (such as 9/10/11 and 1:00 a.m.) and click Next.

On the Action page, click “Start a Program” and click Next.

On the Start a Program page, in the Program/script field, type:

C:WindowsSystem32shutdown.exe

Windows is installed on a drive other than C, substitute that drive letter.

Click Next.

Review the Summary page and click Finish.

Now Windows will automatically shut down at 1:00 a.m. each day. You’ll get a pop-up notification telling you, before it does so, that “Windows will shut down in less than a minute.”

When you press the key combination CTRL+ALT+DEL in Windows 7 (and Vista), you get a screen that shows you a number of options, including locking the computer, changing your password, logging off, and starting Task Manager. You can customize this screen to show only those options you want to see, using Group Policy – if you’re running Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate edition. Here’s how:

Click Start

In the Search box, type gpedit.msc and press ENTER to open the Group Policy Editor

In the left pane, navigate to and click on User Configuration | Administrative Templates

In the right pane, double click the folder name “Ctrl+Alt+Del Options”

In the right pane, you’ll see the items that you can remove (for example, “Remove Lock Computer”). To remove one, double click it and click Enabled to enable the policy and remove the item from the screen menu

1.- Open Paint by clicking the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, and then clicking Paint.
2.- Click the Paint button, click Open, click the picture you want to resize, and then click Open.
3.- On the Home tab, in the Image group, click Resize.
4.- In the Resize and Skew dialog box, select the Maintain aspect ratio check box so that the resized picture will have the same aspect ratio as the original picture. If the Maintain aspect ratio check box is selected, you only need to enter the horizontal value (width) or vertical value (height). The other box in the Resize area is updated automatically.
5.- Do one of the following in the Resize area, and then click OK: To resize your picture by a certain percentage, click Percentage, and then enter a percentage to reduce the width by in the Horizontal box or a percentage to reduce the height by in the Vertical box. To resize the picture so it’s a specific size, click Pixels, and then enter a new width in the Horizontal box or new height in the Vertical box.
6.- Click the Paint button, point to Save as, and then click the picture file type for the resized image.
7.- Type a new file name in the File name box, and then click Save.

As some readers noted in response to last week’s editorial about Windows 7 Remote Desktop, you can increase security by changing the default port through which RDP connects (normally port 3389). Here’s how:

1.- Open your registry editor and navigate to the following location:
2.- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ TerminalServer \ WinStations \ RDP-Tcp\PortNumber
3.- Click Edit | Modify
4.- In the properties box, click Decimal
5.- Type in the new port number that you want to use (should be a port not in use by any other protocol)
6.- Click OK
7.- Close the registry editor and reboot the computer to apply the change

To connect via Remote Desktop over the Internet to a computer on a non-default port, when you enter the computer name in the Remote Desktop Connection client, add a colon and the port number (for example: Computername:3390).

I recently got email from a reader who asked if there is any way to find out the security key for his home wi-fi network. He set up the network over a year ago and configured his computers to connect to it, and has been using it ever since. Now he has a new laptop that he wants to connect to the wireless network but he’s forgotten the key. Luckily, if you already have another Windows 7 computer that connects to the network, there is a way to retrieve the key. Here’s how:

1.- Go to the wi-fi enabled computer that’s connected to the network.
2.- In the notification area (system tray), click the Network icon.
3.- Right click the name of the wi-fi network and select Properties.
4.- Click the Security tab.
5.- Check the “Show Characters” checkbox.

QUESTION:
Help! My friend’s father is recently deceased and she needs to access his computer to pay his bills and find out about his financial information that he kept on the computer. No one else knows his password or an administrator password to change permissions so nobody can get into the operating system (Windows 7 Professional). Is there any way to do this? Thanks! – Evan K.

ANSWER:
You may be able to use Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (which, despite the name, also works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7) to remove the password from the admin account and log on. It’s a bootable program that you download as an .ISO file on another computer and burn to a CD. Then you can boot the father’s computer from the CD. You don’t have to know the username; it will list the accounts that exist on the system. It’s a free download and you can get it here:http://www.win7news.net/110414-Bypass-Admin-PW

QUESTION:
In IE 8, I could get to my Windows Live Mail with one click on the toolbar but this button isn’t there in IE 9. Is there a way to add it? Thanks! – Jillian K.

ANSWER:
You can easily add the mail button to IE 9. Click the Tools menu and click Toolbars, then Customize. In the Customize Toolbar dialog box, find “Read mail” in the section labeled Available toolbar buttons on the left. Highlight it and click the Add button in the middle. This will move it to the Current Toolbar Buttons list on the right. Click Close and you should see the Mail icon on your toolbar.

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There are some programs, especially tools and utilities, that need to run in administrator mode in order to do what they’re intended to do. You can navigate to the executable file, right click it and select to run as administrator each time you want to run it, but that’s a bit of a hassle. Instead, you can create a shortcut that you can use to open the program in admin mode every time. Here’s
How:

1.- First, make a shortcut on your desktop or in another location. Right click an empty space on the desktop and click New and then Shortcut.
2.- In the Create Shortcut wizard, browse to the location of the executable file and click Next.
3.- Give the shortcut a name and then click Finish.
4.- Now right click the shortcut and select Properties.
5.- Click the Advanced button.
6.- Check the box that says “Run as administrator” and click OK.

Now just double click the shortcut to start the program and it will automatically run in administrator mode.

Sometimes, I’d like to be able to access my desktop when I’m on the road, but I have no idea how to even get started using remote desktop. I’m on Comcast’s broadband, so I have a dynamic IP. Plus, my desktop is behind the Comcast router, a D-link router, and then a Linksys router. How in the world would I ever know how to get through to my computer?

If you could, please provide a link to a few articles that will help me get started using Remote Desktop. – Joe M.

ANSWER:

Remote Desktop is a great tool for accessing another computer and viewing and controlling its desktop over the network. On a local network, no problem. It’s as simple as enabling the RD service on the host computer and entering that host’s information in the Remote Desktop Connection client program on the client computer. But you’re right – when you’re going over the Internet, you need a public IP to connect to.

Another service you can use to assign a fully qualified domain name to your dynamic IP address and detect and automatically change the address when you’re assigned a new one is:http://www.win7news.net/110203-No-IP-Address

The Windows clipboard is where the text, graphics, etc. that you cut or copy reside, waiting for you to paste them to another location. In Windows XP, it was easy to view the contents of the clipboard with clipbrd.exe, but Microsoft removed that feature in Vista and Windows 7, due to security concerns. However, you can copy the file from an XP computer and install it on Vista or Windows 7. Here’s how:

2.- Find the file named clipbrd.exe and copy it to a USB thumb drive or a location on the network that’s accessible to the Vista/Windows 7 computer.

3.- Now on the Vista/Windows 7 computer, copy it to that computer’s System32 folder.

Note: If you can’t see the System32 folder, in Explorer first click Organize | Layout and check “Menu Bar” to display the menu bar, then click Tools | Folder Options, click the View tab, and under Advanced Settings, scroll down and check the option to “Show hidden files, folders and drives.” Then uncheck the option to “Hide protected operating system drives (recommended) and click “Yes” when asked if you’re sure you want to do
this.

If you don’t have access to an XP computer, you can instead install a third party clipboard viewer program, such as this one: